SafeSip Named an Awardee of the Emerging Climate Champions Award
$1 million award will scale SafeSip’s WaterBank from 12 to 50 hubs across Tanzania
MOROGORO, Tanzania – SafeSip today announced it has been named one of 25 award recipients of the Emerging Climate Champions Award, a $25 million USD global open call funded by the Enlight Foundation and The Patchwork Collective and managed by Lever for Change. Each youth-led organization was awarded a flexible, multi-year gift of $1 million USD to advance climate solutions globally.
SafeSip’s WaterBank is a solar-powered, autonomous water utility designed for off-grid Africa. It requires no grid electricity and no on-site operators, turning contaminated source water into WHO-certified safe domestic and drinking water and delivering it to household doorsteps within a 5 km radius, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. SafeSip’s hubs have dispensed 18.5 million litres of clean water, with 98 percent uptime.
The award will scale WaterBank from 12 to 50 hubs over two years, securing water for 75,000 people and 100,000 livestock, and returning an estimated 7 million hours a year to women and girls now spent collecting water.
“This award belongs to the team that delivers safe water to doorsteps every day,” said Faith Kuya, CEO of SafeSip. “It gives us the backing to reach more families who still walk kilometres for water they cannot trust.”
“Africa does not have a water shortage problem, it has a water access problem,” said Costantine Edward, COO of SafeSip. “The water is there. What is missing is the infrastructure to get it to people. WaterBank closes that gap, and this award helps us take it to many more villages.”
The open call drew applications from youth-led organizations based in 108 countries. Applications underwent a multi-stage review, including administrative screening, a participatory review process, and an external evaluation panel review composed of experts in climate-related fields, philanthropy, and related work all over the world. All 25 awardees, alongside a cohort of top-ranking organizations from the open call, have joined Lever for Change’s Bold Solutions Network.
More information about the initiative and awardees is available at: https://leverforchange.org/open-calls/emerging-climate-champions-award/
Media contact: www.safesip.co.tz
About SafeSip
SafeSip is a Tanzanian organization behind WaterBank, the world’s first fully autonomous water utility for off-grid Africa. WaterBank combines a solar-powered purification unit with motorized last-mile delivery, turning contaminated source water into WHO-certified safe domestic and drinking water available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. SafeSip is based in Morogoro, Tanzania.
Lever for Change
Lever for Change is a nonprofit that creates equitable access in the world of philanthropy, enabling donors to discover and invest in organizations with transformative potential. Through an inclusive open call approach, the team invites organizations of all sizes from around the world to showcase their big ideas and receive donor funding and resources to make them happen. To date, Lever for Change has influenced over $2.7 billion in grants and worked with more than 500 organizations worldwide. Discover new potential at leverforchange.org.
Enlight Foundation
Enlight Foundation focuses on education equality, youth mental wellbeing and youth-driven climate change solutions globally. To create catalytic systems change, the foundation invests in young people, elevates youth voices, and works collaboratively with other foundations, researchers, and nonprofits.
The Patchwork Collective
The Patchwork Collective is a family philanthropic effort supporting locally-led solutions to global challenges. We fund diverse, bold, community-driven organizations and leaders across climate justice, social equity, and global health. Our mission is to provide funding and other forms of support to organizations intent on increasing equitable access, among all people, to better health, education, food security, opportunity, justice, and harmony with their environment.